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Paranormal investigative books are a dime a dozen these days, I blame Mike Mignola. So if one is to bring a new one to the table, it better be something special.

Dorkin and Thompson do just that. By taking a group of familiar housepets (mostly dogs) and putting them in the supernatural investigation business, having demonic frogs fly from the sky, and rumors of a society in the background, they may have found a new way to tell those same tales.

On its surface, Beasts of Burden isn't any different from Hellboy or Proof or any of those. Here we have the formation of the team and some solid dialogue and story progression. If it were that with plain people, it might has well be Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft. Instead, we have the doggies and the kitties. It would stink of syrupy saccherine if not for the dark edge of the story - while still maintaining a family friendly vibe.

Remarkably though, it is the way Thompson draws the book that makes it stand out. Instead of going the anthropomorphic route, she wisely draws beautiful dogs and cats and livens them up with water colors. If not for people eating frogs, this could be a classics illustrated version of The Incredible Journey.

In fact, it has that heart warming vibe to it, despite its tale of a town with a Buffy like nexus.
I am sure that dog lovers will like the book even more as the often playful nature of puppies literally jumps off the page.

While the story is just solid, the art is nothing short of spectacular and combined their is something special in the coming here.

Punchy wrote:This was pretty much no different from any other Dark Horse, Image, DC or Marvel book! Are you reviewing the paper stock now!

Not only don't I understand what you are getting at with the paper stock thing, your eagerness to try and be a prick might prove you have no aesthetic sensibility or may have Assburger's Syndrome.

But as regards to the paper stock, they didn't skimp on the cover or rape my wallet for an extra dollar or more, like Marvel would if this had been picked up by ICON. Which, as I'm sure the people not blessed with your autistic nature realized I was getting at, was my point--they didn't pack it with ads, short the page count, and price it at $3.99 like a lot of other publishers would have.

As regards to overall design and the designer I mentioned, if you can't perceive the quality work she did you should just hide your ignorance with silence, it will make you seem less stupid over time.

House of J wrote:Not only don't I understand what you are getting at with the paper stock thing, your eagerness to try and be a prick might prove you have no aesthetic sensibility or may have Assburger's Syndrome.

But as regards to the paper stock, they didn't skimp on the cover or rape my wallet for an extra dollar or more, like Marvel would if this had been picked up by ICON. Which, as I'm sure the people not blessed with your autistic nature realized I was getting at, was my point--they didn't pack it with ads, short the page count, and price it at $3.99 like a lot of other publishers would have.

As regards to overall design and the designer I mentioned, if you can't perceive the quality work she did you should just hide your ignorance with silence, it will make you seem less stupid over time.

This is all well and good, but once again it comes back to you reviewing something other than the story of the comic. You devote a whole paragraph to an advert!

I like you, but you seem to fixate on weird nitpicks, at the expense of the meat of an issue.

Punchy wrote:This is all well and good, but once again it comes back to you reviewing something other than the story of the comic. You devote a whole paragraph to an advert!

I like you, but you seem to fixate on weird nitpicks, at the expense of the meat of an issue.

Vegetarian since before you were born, laddie.

I loved the story. It was one of the most enjoyable reads in a long time, in part because of how free of assumptions I'd bring with me it was. But like I said at the beginning, I'm a big fan of everything Evan's written from his earliest self-drawn, self-deprecating humor strips to his writing for television, and this is another side of his talent. He's a nice guy at cons, too. I loved reading it, so that about summed up what I had to say about the writing.

Jill Thompson, though, blew me away here. Very impressive work. I wonder how long it took to paint the issue?

MrBlack wrote:How extensive was the previous story involving these animals? It seems like there is quite a bit of backstory I am not privy to. It didn't help that they didn't name many of the characters; one of them wasn't named in the book until after he died.

The story was good, but reading it, I understood what picking up a random issue of the X-Men must feel like to the average person.

thefourthman wrote:There is back story? Really?This felt like true exposition to me.

I should learn to read words without pictures, that inside cover shit completely went unnoticed by me I guess since I started reading comics in the day and age before recap pages and defined story arcs, I never have a problem stepping into a story that feels like it is already in progress if it is told well and this one is.